


What Is Marriage Anyway?

by mickeymilkchild (kittleimp)



Series: G*llavich Week 2015 [2]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Divorce, Ghetto Married, Immigration & Emigration, M/M, Married Couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-19
Updated: 2015-06-19
Packaged: 2018-04-05 03:04:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4163241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittleimp/pseuds/mickeymilkchild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ian is starting to like the idea of getting married, but Mickey seems to have something against it. Just when he's starting to lose hope, Ian realizes that marriage doesn't always mean golden rings and a piece of paper.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Is Marriage Anyway?

**Author's Note:**

> This is written post-post-5x12. They've made up, one way or another, and they're comfortably together again.
> 
> G*llavich Week Day 5 - Marriage
> 
> [Soph](http://archiveofourown.org/users/wemightaswellbestrangers) was my sweet last-minute beta for this one!

Getting Svetlana her citizenship takes significantly more effort than any of them had anticipated. 

Both she and Mickey are more than ready to sign divorce papers, no question there, but before they can do that Svetlana needs a green card. Shit. Their one saving grace is that by some fucking miracle Svetlana is actually a fucking legal immigrant, the one demand her parents made when they sold her into slavery all those years ago. Despite this, immigration decided to make their lives a living hell anyway, by dropping by their “marital home” for surprise visits. Fun. 

Mickey keeps a cheap wedding band in his pocket, ready to slip on to his finger the second anyone with a badge shows up. Every time Ian sees that flash of pawn shop gold glinting on Mickey’s finger, his brain spins with possibilities. Once Svetlana has her green card, she and Mickey can get the divorce they so desperately want, which would open things up for Ian. _Wedding-related things_. He can't say he ever thought much about marriage before, but everytime he sees that band of gold on his boyfriend’s finger he thinks that he sure as hell wouldn’t mind a matching one on his own.

The first time Ian brings the idea up it is the briefest of mentions, barely even a question. Mickey reacts with the same disinterest that he has toward his current marriage. When Ian tries again, this time more directly, Mickey's face sets into a frown.

"The fuck would we get married for? It's just a bullshit piece of paper," Mickey says, remaining focused on cleaning his gun in the living room. "Fuck, we may as well sign on for a fucking domestic partnership. It wouldn't be any different."

Ian doesn't bring it up again. Mickey never cared about his marriage with Svetlana, but Ian always assumed it was just because he didn't want to get married to her. It never occurred to him that Mickey might not care for marriage in general. It’s a bitter thought to swallow.

Surprisingly, Lip is the one to sit him down and reawaken the hope Ian had shoved down and trampled. 

“Let me ask you something.” His brother said as they discussed it a week later.

**"Does he cook for you?"**

Mickey's culinary abilities definitely do not belong in a five star restaurant. His signature meal is a tray of Pizza Rolls heated in the oven. Hell, even pizza bagels have a tendency to burn when Mickey is involved.

This knowledge is why Ian is so surprised when he stumbles across his boyfriend standing in the kitchen and stirring a pot of pasta sauce.

Debbie is ordering him around and checking on the meal, but Mickey is standing next to her, carefully moving the spoon around the steaming pot as she moves and talks around him. There's even an empty pan on the next burner where he had been helping to cook the beef.

"Is that going to be burned, Mick?" Ian teases, resting his chin on the shorter man's shoulder.

"No, and fuck you for asking," Mickey replies distractedly, eyes fixated on the bubbling tomato sauce.

"I've been keeping an eye on him," Debbie assures her brother with a confident smile. "He's getting better at helping me."

 _Getting better?_ That implies that Mickey's sudden interest in cooking isn't as sudden as Ian initially thought. He lets his mind wander back, wondering how many of his other meals Mickey might have had a hand in. By the way that Mickey is studiously avoiding Ian's eyes, the answer is probably a hell of a lot.

"Didn't know you were learning to cook," Ian says lightly and kisses his boyfriend's neck.

Mickey shrugs, "Figure I should learn while I can."

Debbie calls for Ian's help with the noodles and he leaves Mickey to stir the pasta sauce. Still, he can't get the proud smile that appeared on Mickey's lips for a split second out of his mind.

**“Does he fold your clothes?”**

The dryer that JimmySteve bought them years ago still sits in the kitchen, now covered by a layer of grime and enough scuff marks to make it look like it belongs in the house. Mickey knows this. He also knows that doing his laundry at the Gallagher’s place would piss Fiona off. With Ian’s older siblings looking for any excuse to throw him out, he can’t risk making her mad.

Ian knows that Mickey knows this, which is why it throws him when Lip stalks into the bedroom he used to share with the younger boys, looking for Ian. His face is already set into a frown when Ian looks up from what he’s studying.

“Why the fuck is Mickey doing his laundry here?” Lip bites out in annoyance, motioning down the hall.

“I don’t know,” Ian replies, brow furrowed in confusion. He stands up as Lip continues.

“You better go talk to him because that shit isn’t going to fly.”

Ian rolls his eyes at the threat and walks down the stairs. Sure enough, Mickey is standing in the kitchen and pulling laundry out of the dryer. He’s already got half of the load folded on top of the machine. However, Lip got one major detail wrong.

“Mick, why are you folding my clothes?” Ian asks from the doorway.

“Ran out of clean shirts to steal from your drawer,” Mickey replies easily, as if that makes perfect sense.

“Ah,” Ian says, as if that reason alone is enough to make sense of the vision in front of him. “Alright.”

When he returns to his room and settles back onto his bed, Lip is waiting with raised eyebrows. Ian ignores him and opens the workbook he was looking at before the interruption. This GED shit is going to kill him. After a minute feeling his brother’s eyes boring into him, he lifts his head and looks over to his brother. 

“He isn’t doing his laundry, he’s doing _mine_.”

**“Does he stay over more than four nights a week?”**

Mickey has this thing about cuddling that Ian will never understand. He avoided it like the plague for the first few years of their relationship, refusing to so much as lay in bed with Ian. Even after all of this time, he still isn’t used to curling up together. It’s lucky for them that Ian is very fucking persistent.

For the fifth night that week, Ian feels the bed dip under a second person’s weight. It’s a small twin bed and really isn’t made for two people, but he rolls over with a sleepy smile on his face and presses himself against Mickey’s back. Their fingers fit together perfectly and Mickey’s legs tangle with Ian’s immediately.

“Thought you were staying at home tonight,” Ian mumbles sleepily against Mickey’s bare back.

“Yevy’s asleep, Svet and Nika wanted the house to themselves,” he whispers back, eyes already closed. “I can go if you want.”

“Nah, you can stay. I guess I like you enough.”

“Oh, you do?” Mickey says and his lips curve up into a flirtatious smile.

“Juuust enough,” Ian says, dragging out the words.

Their conversation ends there, but Ian nuzzles his face into the back of Mickey’s head. He wasn’t lying when he told Carl that he likes the way Mickey smells. Cheap shampoo, cigarette smoke, and the faintest scent of sweat. He falls asleep to the sound of Mickey’s slow, even breathing.

**“Does he help you out with random stuff?”**

Ian leans forward, running his fingers through his hair, and starts to list everything that Mickey helps him out with. Remembering meds is the first thing that comes to mind, the thing he still struggles with from time to time, but Mickey does so much more than that. He drops by the store if Ian forgot to grab something. When Ian finds himself broke between paychecks, Mickey hands him a twenty and insists that he owes Ian plenty of cash anyway.

There’s even more than Ian doesn’t give voice to. The domestic shit like brushing their teeth together, fixing Ian’s hair, and telling him when his shirt has a stain on it. Yevgeny started talking months ago and already calls Mickey “Papa” and Ian “Dada”.

Well.

Lip’s verdict is “ghetto married”. 

All the marriage, none of the paperwork. So, they won’t be using each other’s health insurance quite yet, but it is a comfortable place to stay for now. Marriage is something to revisit once Mickey’s divorce from Svetlana has disappeared in the rearview mirror. In the meantime, ghetto marriage to Mickey Milkovich is a surprisingly sweet place to be.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm [mickeymilkchild](http://mickeymilkchild.tumblr.com) on tumblr!


End file.
